1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a baby bottle from which an infant may drink a liquid such as milk, juice or water. More particularly, the present invention relates to a baby bottle which provides improved ease of gripping during use. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to a baby bottle comprising a depression on the front side thereof for receiving an infant's fingers during use and a depression on the rear side thereof for receiving an infant's thumbs during use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional nursing bottles are usually of a substantially cylindrical configuration in which the bottle and the attached nipple have a common longitudinal axis. These types of bottles are generally referred to as straight nursing bottles and have deficiencies in that the base of the bottle must be tipped increasingly upwardly as the contents of the bottle are consumed in order to keep the nursing fluid available to the opening in the nipple. Tipping the bottle upward results in tipping the infant's head back or inclining the infant in a more supine position in order to facilitate feeding. Such positioning of the infant during feeding is not recommended by pediatricians due to the possibility of fluid entering the Eustachian tube and possibly contributing to inner ear infections.
Angled bottles were developed to facilitate feeding without the need to incline the infant or for the infant to tilt his or her head back. See, e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,676,387 to Stephenson and 4,832,213 to Sharon. These bottle designs aid in keeping the nipple opening contiguous with the fluid inside the bottle while mitigating the need to tilt the bottle. These designs are deficient in instances where the infant holds the bottle for himself or herself since they lack a grippable area which is suitable for an infant's hands.
Grippability was incorporated in an angled bottle as shown in Dansfield, U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,325. This bottle is toroidal in shape with grippable sides. The design is intended to produce a highly stable bottle when placed on its side and also to provide a large surface area for rapidly warming the contents. This bottle is deficient in that the means of gripping is not ergonomically acceptable for a self-feeding infant (the wrists would be bent in an unnatural position) and cleaning of the bottle would be extremely difficult.
Straight bottles which are more easily gripped by self-feeding infants are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,570,808 to Campbell and 4,813,556 to Lawrence. The Campbell patent discloses a bottle which has a grippable area for the infant's hands; however, the bottle's straight design requires tipping of the bottle to fully deliver its contents. The Lawrence patent discloses a bottle which has a bellows-shaped top near the open end and a pair of opposing recesses which form portions of the body surface into a pair of handles to facilitate gripping during self-feeding. The purpose of the bellows is to remove air from the container since this section of the bottle is collapsible. This bottle is deficient in that the pair of recesses therein are not ergonomically positioned so as to allow the infant to place his or her thumbs in a natural position during feeding.